MCIT Awards 4 Grants for Jail Camera Programs

The MCIT Board of Directors during its January meeting approved four grants totaling greater than $78,000 to members to adopt or expand the use of cameras in their jails.

The grants are to help improve awardees’ ability to benefit operationally from the greater use of camera technology in county jails.

Each county sheriff grant recipient currently has in place camera systems in and around their jails. But each has challenges with these existing systems, such as the following.

• Outdated technology: Improved camera resolution requires more computer storage space than aging equipment can provide, and expanding from just fixed-point cameras to body-worn cameras for greater coverage of jail operations.
• Budget constraints: Any technology demands ongoing investment and upgrades, but budget constraints are a common theme among the nearly 20 applicants for the grant.
• Limited supply of equipment: Shortages in supply of cameras mean that existing equipment is shared among staff or some staff go without cameras. Also, continuous deployment of equipment creates challenges for recharging, repair and other maintenance of cameras.

Grant Winners

Goodhue County will use its $30,000 grant to upgrade its current system to process camera data in real time, allow for more camera feeds to be visible at master control at one time and upgrade unit touch screens to improve efficiency.

Koochiching County has $14,765 in grant funds to update its 15 year-old system and increase its use of cameras around the jail.

Stearns County has received $28,500 to purchase 30 additional body-worn cameras for its jail staff.

Watonwan County will use $5,065 in grants funds to expand its fixed-point camera system to include body-worn cameras for its staff. The addition of sound recording will improve evidence of incidents as well.

Obligations of Grant Winners

Grant winners will provide brief reports to MCIT at intervals of six months, 12 months, 24 months and 36 months after receiving funds. The reports must include details regarding acquisition, adoption, use of and effectiveness of cameras in achieving stated grant application goals.

This is the first grant program MCIT has offered its members, and the trust will monitor its success to consider whether to offer future grants.